California finally cracks down on bad cops
By Dan Walters | @CalMatters Columnist |
Whatever else the California Legislature did or didn’t do this year, it finally — and very belatedly — took a long-needed step toward ridding the state of bad cops who victimize people they are supposed to be serving and taint their honorable profession.
Last week, after years of unsuccessful efforts to punish errant officers, the Legislature approved a bill creating a process for lifting the certifications — in essence, their licenses — that allowed them to continue wearing badges.
It made no sense that
officers fired from one department for bad conduct could keep their
certifications and find jobs elsewhere. But while the state has for many years
de-licensed doctors, lawyers and other professionals proven of misconduct, it
lacked authority to move against cops — one of only four states with that
obvious regulatory gap.
The lack of a decertification
process testified to the immense political clout that law enforcement unions
have wielded in the Capitol.
For decades, the unions and
politicians of both parties have maintained a mutually beneficial charade.
Governors and legislators would provide what the cops wanted, such as high
pension benefits and special protections from oversight and discipline, and in
return the unions would trumpet politicians as supporters of law and order.
Recently, however, a surge of
very questionable police killings, particularly those of Black men, fueled
demands for reform, including punishment of cops who are needlessly violent.
In 2018, only a couple of
miles from California’s Capitol, Stephon Clark, who was suspected of
vandalizing cars, died in a fusillade of bullets fired by two Sacramento officers who erroneously
thought they saw a gun in his hand.
Clark’s death touched off
massive protests in Sacramento and demands for reform after the local district
attorney declared that the shooting was justified under state law.
The Clark incident generated
enough backlash that San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (now California’s
secretary of state) persuaded her fellow legislators and Gov. Gavin
Newsom to change the law governing police use of deadly force, limiting it
to protecting officers or others from death or serious injury.
The political heat was turned
up even more after last year’s infamous death of George Floyd with Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on his
neck. It triggered a nationwide reaction and eventually resulted in Chauvin’s
murder conviction and imprisonment.
The furor over the Floyd case
gave state Sen. Steven Bradford some additional momentum for his drive to
decertify bad cops. Bradford, a San Pedro Democrat, couldn’t get legislation
passed in 2020, thanks to opposition from police unions and other law
enforcement groups, but he succeeded this year after softening some provisions
of his measure, Senate Bill 586,
just before final votes.
Under the revised bill,
California’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) would be
empowered to strip an officer’s certification, but only on a two-thirds vote
and after an advisory board recommended the action.
Bradford hailed SB 586 as
“the first of its kind in California.” However, the law enforcement groups
remain opposed and advocates of reform are concerned that it requires too many
hoops to be as effective as they want.
The state’s other licensing
agencies are often criticized for being too cozy with those they regulate and
too lenient. Given the concessions that Bradford had to make to get SB 586
passed, that could happen with POST as well. But at least it’s a start on something
that should have happened decades ago.
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture
committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it
matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary
Copyright by Elk Grove News © 2021. All right reserved.
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